Justifiable
by Psychx
Summary: Blake Belladonna wasn't always the aspiring huntress she is today. Prior to ever thinking about Beacon, she was a member of the White Fang, protesting threats to their way of life. But for Blake, things weren't always black and white. With the death of her friend, and questions surrounding her new partner Adam, what's a faunus to do?
1. Scout

The wind was still.

Blake knelt down to her new partner. The faunus' peaceful protests were often met with unjustified violence. She missed her former partner, but they had to overcome. For the White Fang, it wasn't about pride. It was about peace. And Adam Taurus felt the same.

The air was cold.

Adam introduced himself as a longtime mercenary, but with the humans being cruel, he could no longer work for meager pay. Blake herself had never killed anyone, but to be paired with someone who hardly viewed human life as meaningful, well, it was a shock to her.

The time had come.

Adam and Blake set off to the pavilion for a meeting. There was to be a leadership announcement, from the highest of the White Fang himself. They would protest an event called the _Dust Missile Grandstand_. Ironwood, that bastard, would militarize dust in the form of terrible explosives. At least, that's how Adam worded it to his newfound partner. The duo arrived at the meeting hall.

Blake was nervous about the days activities. According to their leader, they were set to head to the event before the rest of the protesters, to scope it out in the event of any violent opposition, and report back. Easier said than done, as she herself knew she wouldn't be able to control her temper of one of those filthy humans dare lay a hand on her. See, it was easy for her to slip away in the event of danger; her semblance gave her the option to clone herself for flight or fight. But her temper, and Adam's experience in his previous line of work, was quite problematic. She opened a book to calm down, _From Dust: A History_. She always did enjoy historical fiction, regardless of how unrealistic it seemed. _Dust that can bring people back_ , she smirked a bit. _That'd be pretty great._

"Are we ready to go, Ms. Belladonna?" Adam didn't offer any emotion to his words. He was rather cold and off-putting on occasion, but kept himself collected and professional.

"Yes, let's depart."

The two traveled to Vale to set up a position. Blake had binoculars and would be set to a higher perch; it would happen that quick climbing was her forte. She signaled for Adam to blend in with the gathering crowd, who wore a hat to hide his horns, lest he be noticed. The sun shone across his pale face, and he donned a pair of shades to keep his focus and to help blend in. Blake noticed a few armed soldiers near the staging area, and a few more down the road. She traversed the rooftops.

 _No soldiers here, but a few own this street._ She pondered a bit, and concluded the presenters – Ironwood included – would likely come this way. _I hope Adam knows what he's doing._ She called Adam on her scroll to ensure his knowledge, and proceeded to call another member to let them know to make their way over for the protest.

Ironwood arrived in a dark car, possibly armored and surrounded by guards. He made his way up to the stage as Blake stood near Adam. She had never met the general, but had seen his face a few times on the news. The rest of the white fang, near the front of the stage, began unfurling their banners in protest. The mission directive Adam and Blake were following was mostly recon, but if things got ugly, they will step in. Soldiers noticed the signs and approached the group.

Blake wasn't too fond of politics, but knew quite a bit anyway. Since the pact that supposedly meant peace between the faunus' and the humans began, the vicious murder on sight simply turned into racism and a lack of justice. Before the pact, the faunus', who had their own systems in play, could fight back due to their own rights and civil adherence. Under the pact, they became fully assimilated under the human law of the land and saw any rights they may have had stripped. There was also a rumor going around that the government of Vale had chipped faunus', but Blake had never met one.

"Stand down!" The soldier's voice bellowed at the protesters as they stood in silence. "I said stand down!" The White Fang continued to be silent. They had but posters and banners, and without a word, facing the stage, eyes on Ironwood. The soldier fired a single shot.

The warning shot startled the crowd, as Blake and Adam leapt into action. Adam got between the soldier and the protesters, as Blake shuffled to distract the other soldiers. The soldier smirked and yelled at the top of his lungs: "He has a weapon!" Adam was stunned and looked around. The soldier smacked him with the stock of his rifle, and proceeded to focus the gun on his chest. Blake turned around just in time to see the exchange. She summoned a clone, who promptly appeared in front of the gun's barrel, as she tackled the soldier. Many others had now made their way over as Ironwood himself slipped away from the stage. The protesters began reaching for weapons, as very few were armed, and prepared for a battle. Blake pulled out her trusty weapon, a chain-scythe combination called _Gambol Shroud_ , and ran towards the approaching soldiers. With deftness and speed she disarmed many of them, mostly through use of her chain, and grabbed Adam to run. Adam sprung to his feet and directed the rest of the white fang to get a move on, as he calls it. Adam and Blake lagged behind to watch for reinforcements, leaving the city to debrief when the rest of the group was safe.

Blake sat down to gather herself in her room. She had a small apartment in the city, but she wasn't so worried about being recognized. She lived in Vale, and often wore black around the town; this morning's protest saw her wearing white and a knit cap to cover her ears. Most times, it was replaced with a little black bow, gifted to her by her former best friend.

 _I shouldn't be thinking about her._ Blake began to sip some tea she had made. _Darjeeling, her favorite._ The young woman began to tear up. They were only kids, both 16, when the protest had gone awry. It started out much like today's one. The two were with a smaller group of protesters then, protesting the opening of a new weapons factory on the outskirts of Vale. _Sky…_ Blake reached for the book she had been given before the untimely death of her best friend. _Ninjas in Love. Kinda pervy,_ Blake blushed slightly before returning to her tea. _But I did promise her I would read it one day._

Sky Duranta was a gorgeous young woman, only a few days older than Blake. She wore her light blonde hair down, flowing well beyond her shoulder blades and down to the small of her back. She would often wear these blue dresses, full of frills and nary a stray seam. Quite generous, and with a lilting voice that sometime seemed almost like it wasn't there, she wasn't the most innocent of girls. Her parents were killed during a mission; they were hunters. Sky was only 14 when she found sanctum in the white fang, and met Blake a year later, when the two became instant friends. They would often read books with each other. Blake preferred historical novella about time periods, while Sky was more into fantasy and new ideas. She gave Blake many gifts, and Blake was always so thankful and would usually buy food for Sky, who loved eating as much as she loved reading. Sky would always tell Blake to pet her ears, which resembled those of a deer, simply because she enjoyed the way it felt to be petted. She also gave Blake her signature collar, because she always referred to her best friend as "Kitty." Blake would wear this collar closed until Sky's passing, when she wore it loosely from her neck, open, in symbolism of a grasp she cant quite let go of yet. Blake finished her cup and poured another, hoping it would help her sleep.


	2. Capitol

Blake dodged a few shots from her opponent. Drawing her blade, and retreating to a better position on the stairs, she looked down at the guards around her. The armed men were there to provide peace for the speech, but she wouldn't allow that. No, the white fang wouldn't allow peace. Not this kind of peace, at least. There was no peace to be found in the oppression of a people. All that Blake and her people knew was hatred. No one that could quite love them outside of their own family. There was a lot of civil battles between different clans of the faunus', hatred breeding more hatred. The humans here too, preventing the young faunus from being at peace, both with herself and with the world. She leapt in.

They were at the capitol, a two story building right in the middle of Vale, mostly for bureaucracy and what not, but not where the governor sat. It was a beautiful courtyard full of flowering plants and trees of many fruits, to symbolize diversity. _Right._ Blake and her fellow protestors had bene there to protest a meeting between Ironwood and some other officials in the talks of militarizing Dust, of all things. This matter wasn't even known to the public, and it took some of the fangs' best spies in order to make this day a reality. Ironwood had been traveling light in terms of security, but Blake and her Partner were still caught off guard.

A guard fired a shot, whizzing past the faunus' ear; she merely recoiled slightly at the sound as she whipped the gun out of his hand. Grabbing the weapon, she shot a few rounds, effectively disarming a couple other guards, and threw the pistol towards another, knocking him down.

The battle went on for several minutes. More guards trying to stop the faunus, and Blake dodging and disarming to the best of her abilities. Many rounds were unloaded, and Blake had a few scrapes from bullets that grazed her. Even with her reflexes synonymous with being a cat faunus, there were just too many bullets and they were moving too fast.

Crouching, she released her full strength on the ground as she soared skywards, aiming to land on the top of the building behind her. A small advantage of her faunus heritage would be her ability to leap quite high. She could never hop over a skyscraper, but her training afforded her the hope to scale a couple stories. Upon steadying her balance, she looked down at the dying deer faunus lying in pain.

"I haven't given up" she whispered gently to Blake, as the dying girl smiled a last, faint smile, and her eyelids rolled down over those sky blue eyes.

"Don't you dare go anywhere!" Blake was beginning to tear up. "We can still get you to a hospital! We can still…" she trailed off as she saw Sky's breathing stop, and her arms went lax from over her wound to the ground next to her. Blake wanted nothing more than to jump back down and give those guards exactly what they deserved, but she couldn't. There's no way Sky could ever approve of vengeance, and she didn't want that saying on her conscience.

Blake woke up panting, gasping for air as she ran to drink a glass of water. Her apartment looked fuzzy, and she felt as if she wasn't quite real. Her senses slowly returned as she lapsed down in the corner, staring at the ceiling. _Why now?_ She thought, eyes pacing left and right trying to make sense of everything. _Why is she coming back now?_ The girl finally struggled to her feet, and poured some tea to try and wake her up.

 _Things have never been the same since she left, but this is no reason for me to be thinking about this._ Blake stared at the etchings in the table. The wood had scratches consistent with normal wear and tear, and a few heat marks from her constantly drinking tea without use of a plate. _Sky was the one person I could turn to no matter what, and now I can't even have a moment of peace._ Her eyes watered as she looked toward the ceiling. Trying to compose herself, her tears flowed heavier, and she shoved her face into her palms as she collapsed into the corner.

 _All it was, was a protest._ She began to think to herself. _We were there at the capitol, and one of the members of the white fang was getting a bit on edge. The guards told him to step to the side, and he yelled back._ Blake began to sob louder as her thinking became speaking. "Why….why couldn't he have just stepped aside?"


	3. Preparation

Blake looked around her room after a period; crying takes a lot more out of you than you'd expect. Today's mission wouldn't begin for another few hours, and Adam had taken it upon himself to see leadership about them himself. He refused explanation on why she didn't need to be there, but she accepted it. After all, things were getting difficult when they really shouldn't be.

Today's mission was a lot less scout and a lot more volatile. Literally, in fact. There was a dust mine that the fang had been gathering intel on in the southeast of Vale, and Adam seemed quite excited about the whole thing. Ideally, it would be an operation of overpower and surrender, but what the organization wasn't fully aware of would be who was guarding the mine. Much of the thing was shrouded in secrecy, and Blake herself wished it was more apparent what this mine had to do with protesting, but went with it.

For this effort, Blake wanted to pick out something with a bit of color. Stealth was irrelevant, so she let her mind drift towards the closet.

Bows. Lots and lots of bows. A knit cap, and a few other hats. Sky had given her most of the colors, a maroon one, a cerulean one, a rather frilly white one. Blake blushed slightly at the bright pink one, considering the circumstance that surrounded that. Finally, a purple one that matched her cat ears, and the signature black she wore most of the time. _Purple it is_ , Blake thought. She also found a nice lavender top coat. The idea of this would be that, worn with leggings or other type of skin tight pants, she'd have maximum maneuverability in a fight than she could with a typical blouse or shirt. It also featured pockets she could keep little smoke bombs in; this was a recommendation of Adam, in the event her aura runs weak and she needs to make a getaway. It fit a bit snugly on her, but loosened up after a few stretches.

Blake was out the door and tapping on her scroll to send a message to Adam. She would need to head southeast of the town for a while, and the trains got nowhere near there, so it would take her an hour or so worth of walking. She decided to pull out a small pair of ear buds from the back of her scroll.

Scrolls were these cutting edge machines capable of pulling up information about almost anything on Remnant, powered by a dust crystal array levitating high above the surface. Propelled in place by a passive barrier spell, there were certain to remain in place unless purposefully acted upon by and exterior force. These transferred information through the use of active/passive magic, acting as a data transfer proxy to relay everything from voice calla to streaming video and even low-energy teleportation, the latter of which was more about sending the information about the particles rather than the what it was made of, allowing it to be "printed" on the receiving end. Nothing living, however, so its function was mostly for someone who forgot a jacket at a friend's house or needed to mail a book back to a library.

Blake wasn't one to listen to music, so instead used her scroll to hear audio books. Even though she hated the thought of not having a book in her hand - electronic books did exist in scrolls, after all - she figured she may as well have thought of a use for the earbuds her scroll came with. Scrolls were perfectly customizable in terms of firmware and programs could be loaded into them that were made by companies or even the users themselves. So long as they were connected to the crystal infrastructure, there was no reason that any two people should have the same personal scroll both cosmetically or in its utility. Many technology companies could capitalize on this functionality, and would thus create their models and pre-load it with useful software programs based on their intended user base. A scroll built for a hunter could be loaded with map applications and bestiaries of Grimm, while a similar model designed around students could be exceptionally thing to fit into a pocket and have programs for studying and academic shopping.

The faunus listened to a historically accurate novella entitled _Blades of Grass_ , a somewhat intricate delve into the beginnings of the faunus uprising and how many years of strife led them to the current age. In fact, it was published only last year, and included some information on the white fang, though none of the mentioned names were actual members.

Blake was already a but beyond the city at this point, and approaching Mountain Glenn, the location of the mine. Adam would be there in a few minutes and Blake would only be a few minutes behind that. She took a deep sigh as she increased her pace in anxiousness, She removed her earbuda and placed them neatly into the slot on her scroll, and made her final mental preparations before what she felt could be her hardest mission yet.


End file.
